
Aerial Navigation 


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ALVA L. REYNOLDS 

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 


COPYRIGHTED 1905 


PRICE, 25 CENTS 





















































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Aerial Navigation 


BY 




ALVA L. REYNOLDS 

LOS ANGELES," CALIFORNIA 


COPYRIGHTED 1905 


PRICE, 25 CENTS 

























AERIAL NAVIGATION 

Ever since the minds of men began to grapple with 
great problems, history has supplied us with multitudes 
of names, with the exploits, experiments and accomplish¬ 
ments of men who have attempted to sever the bonds 
that held them to earth, that they might be enabled to go 
forth upon the trackless air. 

Men of genius, men of learning, and men of both 
genius and learning combined, have long wrestled with 
this great problem of “Aerial Navigation/’ and yet it 
cannot be said at this time, that any man has ever suc¬ 
cessfully navigated the air. 

Our libraries are filled with books on the subject by 
men who knew nothing about it, and columns and pages 
of statistics have been compiled which have no bearing 
whatever upon the subject. Our college professors 
and scientists agree that the problem can and will be 
solved, and the governments of the earth are clamoring 
for its solution, not in the dim and shadowy distance of 
future generations, but right now, in our own day and 
time. 

Man is no longer looked upon as a crank or lunatic, 
when he asserts his belief in its feasibilitv, for the whole 
world is looking forward expectantly to the time when 
practical aerial navigation will be an accomplished 
fact. 

The failure of man to solve the problem long ere 
this, is not due to any lack of mechanical skill or of in¬ 
ventive genius, but I contend that the reasons lie in the 


fact that the inventor has lacked the knowledge of the 
laws that govern natural flight, hence, the solution of 
the problem involves something more than a mere in¬ 
vention, it will be a discovery, and must come through a 
complete understanding of the laws that govern the 
flight of birds. 

The science of aeronautics is a well written his¬ 
tory, and any student who wishes to inform himself on 
that subject may read it, study it, and learn it, the same 
as he would study any other branch of the established 
sciences; but when we enter the study of “Aerial Navi¬ 
gation," we plunge into the wilderness of the occult 
sciences of which there is no written history, no beaten 
paths to follow, no hand to guide, no finger to point the 
wav, save those of Mother Nature. 

We pass beyond the experiences of man, for be it 
remembered that up to the present day no man has ever 
yet navigated the air. 

To ascend into the air by means of the buoyant 
power of gas to an indefinite height, and to sail to all 
points of the compass to no definite purpose, and finally 
land wherever fate decrees, does not constitute aerial 
navigation. Before we can claim to have solved the 
problem, we must be able to ascend into the air to some 
definite height, go to some definite point, to some definite 
purpose, and return to the place from which we started, 
and above all, to be able to do the same thing over again 
for an indefinite number of times under the same con¬ 
ditions. 

The public in general has been led to believe that 
the modern airship was working out the solution of the 
aerial navigation problem; but in this it is being 
grossly misled and deceived. 

There is but one reason why another modern air- 


ship should ever be built in this or any other country, 
and that is because the public in some way can be made 
to pay for the spectacle. 

They are still successful in drawing a crowd and 
increasing gate receipts; but their so-called inventors 

know as well as I do that they are no nearer a solution of 
the problem now than they were twelve years ago when 
Santos Dumont rounded the Eiffle Tower in Paris. 

Airship building at that time was comparitivelv a 
new art, and the world very naturally looked forward to 
an early solution of the problem, and had a right to ex¬ 
pect that Santos Dumont (king of the air) would soon 
provide the world with a complete system of aerial nav¬ 
igation. Yet. Santos Dumont with all his own millions 
of money, and all. the financial backing he could possibly 
use, with the best mechanics that money could hire, with 
all the world praying for his success, as it were, could 
not solve the problem, simply because his principles were 
wrong to begin with. He followed the established prin¬ 
ciples of aeronautics( which means ballooning), but 
those principles can never in themselves bring about 
aerial navigation. 

Pie first made himself lighter than the air by means 
of gas, which suspended him between earth and sky, and 
then by means of a vertical propeller attained his mo¬ 
tion, and by means of a vertical rudder attempted to steer 
his course; the very way you see that nature’s creatures 
do not do it. 

In following these principles, the first thing our 
modern airship builders discover is that they need more 
stability of machinery; they need a more powerful engine 
and a stronger frame to sustain it, and so on and etc., 
and for every pound of weight they add to gain stability, 
they must add 16 cubic feet of gas to suspend it. 


f N 


s: ’ l 

These complications have driven them inevitably to 
larger and larger gas hags, until today the airship 
builders of the old world are building their ships more 
than a hundred feet in length, and requiring many thous¬ 
and feet of gas for their inflation. 

They had one of these modern airships at the 
World’s Fair when I was there last fall; it came over 
from France you know, to capture that one hundred 
thousand dollar prize that some of us coveted so much 
but could not get. 


Its gas bag was 105 feet long, 35 feet in diameter 
and required 65,000 feet of gas for its inflation. Its ma¬ 
chinery weighed about two tons, and it carried a 28-H. P. 
gasoline engine, the best that money could buy. - 

All the workmanship about it showed the utmost 
skill and precision and it was under the care of five of 
the best mechanics (brought from France with the ma¬ 
chine) that money could hire. ‘ 

Up to the time it left the Fair it had cost its promo¬ 
tors something over $100,000, and had nearly swamped 
the entire aeronautical department of the World’s Fair 
by its magnitude. 

Now if this great airship had done everything that 
its inventor expected it to, or ever hoped it would do, it 
would still have been good for nothing. It could not 
possibly have approached any nearer to aerial naviga¬ 
tion than had already been done by others along the same 
lines. But after making two attempts at ascensions, both 
of which ended in disaster, it never succeeded in getting 
over the fence that surrounded the aeronautic concourse. 
Now do you suppose that the inventor of this monstrous 
ship was discouraged? Not in the least. I had a talk 
with him just before I left the aerodrome, and he told me 
that he was going back to France to build another air- 


ship just twice the size of the one which he had brought 
to America with him. 

They had some other monstrosities at the World’s 
Fair, and some that were more within the bounds of 
reason, but our time is too valuable to permit of my com¬ 
menting on all of them. Of course Baldwin and \ were 
both there, and of our machines and principles I will 
speak later. 

What I want to impress upon you at this time, is the 
great difference in the principles followed by the builders 
of these modern airships, and the laws that govern 
natural flight as exemplified by all the creatures that ride 
upon the air. 

Every creature that flies in the air, follows one com¬ 
mon law, viz., the law of motion, that is, they are heavier 
than air, and are only kept aloft by their own speed. We 
have thousands of examples before us every day of 
creatures which navigate the air with varying degrees 
of success. Some are covered with feathers, some with 
hair, some carry shells on their backs, and some belong 
to the fish family, yet, without a single exception, all are 
provided with two horizontal propellers called wings, 
and those that have a rudder at all, have a horizontal 
one. All are provided with the same machinery because, 
all must comply with the same law. Hence, .if man is 
ever to navigate the air, he must first adopt the instru¬ 
ments suited to the principles. 

As we are now studying aerial navigation, let us 
make a few notes on the flight of the albatross, the larg¬ 
est and heaviest bird that travels the air. He is such a 
persistent flyer that it is claimed that he sleeps while on 
the wing. When he rises from the water he generally 
starts from the crest of a wave, so as to get his initial 
speed before he attempts to gain elevation. He strug- 


gles very hard in getting his start, but as his speed in¬ 
creases, we notice that the demand on his energy 
diminishes; that is, the faster he flies the easier he flies. 
During perfectly calm weather he is obliged to work his 
wings a little, but when he has a good sailing breeze he 
obtains his speed free gratis, without the slightest exer¬ 
tion on his own part. He can ride for hours seemingly 
straight against the wind with motionless wings, and 
remain in the air for days without fatigue, and yet, if 
you will put a pen around him ten feet high and ten feet 
square he could never fly out of it. Shut him off from 
the law of motion and flight is no longer possible. 

The South American condor is the next largest bird 
in the world, and from him we shall learn some valuable 
lessons. It is his habit to light down on some dead car¬ 
cass, and after gorging himself with eight or ten pounds 
of flesh, will take to the sky, and remain on the wing for 
four or five days, when hunger will finally drive him back 
to earth again. The first day of his flight after feeding 
he will soar at a speed of about 75 feet per second, and 
will gradually diminish his speed until on the fourth day 
he will be found making a speed of only about 40 feet per 
second. The question was raised at the World's Con¬ 
gress of Aeronautics, at St. Louis, as to how the de¬ 
crease in the condor’s speed could be accounted for. I 
was in attendance at that congress, and as no one else 
attempted to offer an explanation, I volunteered these 
observations: That it was accounted for by the simple 
law of gravitation. That on the first day of his flight 
he carried his maximum weight, as he had just eaten 
eight or ten pounds of food, and as his weight diminish¬ 
ed from day to day, the demands on the law of motion 
to sustain his weight on the air must diminish in a cor¬ 
responding ratio. 


If we will suppose that the condor continued in the 
air, and continued to reduce his weight he would soon 
reach the point where gravity would not produce his 
motion, and he would fall back to earth as helpless as an 
autumn leaf. This lesson of the condor shows us that 
there is a harmony existing between the law of gravity 
and the law of motion, that accounts for the fact that all 
heavy birds with small wings fly swiftly, while all light 
birds of large wings are slow flyers. 

There is another factor in atmospheric phenomona 
that we must not lose sight of, and that is the upward 
tendency of the air currents. Even when there is no wind 
blowing there are always certain gases rising from earth 
to sky which always produce an upward impulse or draft, 
which must necessarilly be of great value to the creat¬ 
ures of the air.. When there is wind the upward tend¬ 
ency becomes more pronounced, and is sometimes even 
violent, carrying quite heavy objects high into the air. 
These upward currents account for in some degree, why 
our soaring birds seem to sail with motionless pinions 
against the wind. 

_ i • * 

The lesson of the condor is a most valuable one in 
the study of this great question, as it proves to us that the 
very law that our modern airship builders are battling 
with (the law of gravitation), is the law that the birds 
of the air depend upon for their dynamic force. 

The speed of every creature that flies depends on 
how much he weighs, and the more he weighs the faster 
he flies, and the less he weighs the slower he : flies. If 
it were possible to render any bird weightless or lighter 
than the air he could not fly, because right there the law 
of gravity and the law of motion would cease to work 
in harmony, and he would be as helpless as a leaf in a 
gale. 


One of the common errors concerning the flying 
qualities of birds is that they fly because of their great 
strength and endurance, but this is a great mistake. It 
is a fact not generally understood that the demand on 
the bird’s energy for power diminishes as his speed 
increases. Shut any bird up in a small room where he 
cannot bring the law of gravity into harmony with the 
law of motion, and he will soon fall to the floor ex¬ 
hausted. Frederick Walker, an eminent civil engineer, 
in his book on “Aerial Navigation,“ (pge 41) under¬ 
takes to prove by actual figures that a man has not the 
power to fly, even if it were possible to construct a 
machine possessing every quality of a bird. He says 
we will suppose that a man only weighs 140 pounds, and 
we will suppose that the machine only weighs 10 pounds, 

■ 1 A .... 

then we will make the very liberal supposition that he 
only flies at the very low rate of speed of 60 feet per 
minute, then he goes on to figure on this basis, that 
man would have only about half the energy that would 

be reouired for him to fly. 

Now, if he will permit me to figure from that same 

basis, I will prove that there is not a bird in existence 
that can fly even that 60 feet. 

You cannot harmonize the law of gravity and the 
law of motion on any such basis, and he seems to be 
entirely ignorant of the fact that so slow a rate of speed 
would be fatal to the flight of almost any winged crea¬ 
ture. In natural flight, speed is' more important than 
power, and the wild goose that flies from Alaska to 
Southern California at a single flight, and does it with 
ease, could not fly that 60 feet in one minute if you held 
him down to so slow a rate of speed. : 

Mr. Walker makes his very liberal supposition on 
the wrong end of the principle. 


Natural flight is the easiest of all modes of motion, 
but alas, the men who write books and magazine articles 
on the subject seem to know nothing whatever about the 
laws by which it is accomplished. 

As I said in the beginning, if the problem of aerial 

navigation is to be solved, it must be done along the lines 

of the laws that govern the flight of birds; yet it is not 

necessary that we commence by building a machine with 

which to run down wild geese, nor do we need to under- 

«* 

take to chase Sunday clear around the globe. 

First, let us navigate the air safely and successfully, 
if we do nothing at first but go over the fence and back, 
that will be aerial navigation, and the next step will soon 
follow. 

If it were possible to produce a machine that would 
be as perfect as a bird and as light as a feather, we would 
probably kill ourselves several times before we learned 
to fly. It is true that man does not possess naturally the 
elements of equipoise and balance that is so natural to 
the bird. Then it follows that if it is ever attained it- 
must be approached by slow degrees, and step by step, 
and means must be provided for the perfect safety of the 
operator and machine while learning. 

To navigate the air without gas, and in imitation 
of the birds, has been the ambition of a great many in¬ 
ventors, and I in a measure may be said to belong to 
that school. I have built some of the best flying ma¬ 
chines in the world, and have done a considerable amount 
of experimenting with them, but have always had a feel¬ 
ing that my safety depended to a great extent upon my 
staying on the ground. 

Herr Otto Lilienthal, of Germany, made the great¬ 
est progress in this line of experiments of any man in the 
world, and the history of his flights may be found in 


“Chanute’s Progress in Flying Machines.’’ He made 
machines with wings similar to those of a bird (but 
stationary), and would gain his initial speed by start¬ 
ing from the top of a hill and running until the air resis¬ 
tance on the under side of the wings would lift him from 
the ground, and he would glide off into the valley be¬ 
low. His experiments proved beyond question that it 
is possible for man to ride uppn the air with wings; but 
after years’ of hard work in which he had braved many 
dangers, we are forced (with reverence) to chronicle 
his death in the year of 1892 by falling with his ma¬ 
chine from a height of 60 feet.' The world owes much 
to this brave and nervy inventor, and I hope to see the 
day when a monument will be erected to his memory, 
but it must be admitted that he left the problem without 
a solution. 

The world is clamoring today for the final and com¬ 
plete solution of this problem—a problem perhaps that 
has cost more money, labor and life than any other one 
problem that has ever vexed the minds of men. 

The most of vou who read this are aware that I 

m/ * „ 

have undertaken its solution. I have endeavored to 
learn from the records of man's past experience the ways 
in which it cannot be done, and have invaded the arch¬ 
ives of nature’s unwritten libraries for the laws and 

’ 1 

principles by which I know it must be accomplished. 

It would be dangerous and foolhardy to repeat the 
Lilienthal experiments, and useless to follow in the wake 
of Baldwin. The first represents one extreme, which is 
fraught with great danger and in the end certain death; 
and the other represents the other extreme, which leads 
inevitably to larger and more expensive failures. Both 
have grappled with the problem in a brave and persis¬ 
tent way that challenges the admiration of all true lovers 


of the brave and ingenius ; yet both have been obliged 
so far to leave it in the same place they found it. 

Now it is with sincere regret that I am obliged to 
discuss Mr. Baldwin; but he is so easily at the head of 
the aeronautical profession that a discussion of this kind 
would hardly be complete without paying him my re¬ 
spects. There is not a man in the world in my. opinion 
better able to exhaust the principles that he is following 
than he is, and you may depend upon it that he will bring 
the modern airship to its highest state of perfection, but 
so long as he adheres to his present principles, aerial 
navigation will remain an unsolved problem, so far as 
he is concerned. 

< Do not understand me as trying to belittle the vic¬ 
tories and accomplishments of Mr. Baldwin. I join with 
all the people of this city and State in the feeling of pride 
over the glory and achievements of the “California 
Arrow" and her nervy little jockey, A. Roy Knaben- 
shue, who has ridden her so many trips across the track- * 
less skies. But what about the “California Arrow?" She 
was probably the best airship ever built, but her history 
has all been written, and her works consigned to the junk 
pile, and her builder has already started over the same 
ground traveled by those who have gone before. He is 
now building her successor (which is nearing comple¬ 
tion), the same to be called “The City of Los Angeles,” 
and is to be larger and better, it is hoped, than the “Ar- 

* I'y » 

row.” But let the “City of Los Angeles” be as good as 
she may, let her excel the “Arrow” if she can, the prin¬ 
ciple is the same that has been threshed over and over 
again, and will drive the builder inevitably to larger and 
larger machines but can never bring about the final solu¬ 
tion of the aerial navigation problem. Right here I 
would say that the solution of this problem depends upon 


a right-about-face of the principles that are being fol¬ 
lowed by all airship builders of the present day. The man 
who has not passed beyond the vertical, or screw propel¬ 
ler idea for producing his motion and the vertical rudder 
idea for steering his course, has not yet started upon the 
study of aerial navigation. Do you not know that the 
efficiency of the screw propeller diminishes as the speed 
of the ship increases? Well, Mr. Baldwin knows it; 
and if you ask him he will tell you so. He also knows 
that the vertical rudder has no efficiencv unless it is 

J 

under a high rate of speed, and I will say to Mr. Bald¬ 
win’s everlasting credit that he knows the limitations of 
these vertical appliances as well as any man in the world 
but when I first exchanged views with him in St. Louis 
he admitted to me that he knew of no others. - I said to 
him at that time what 1 say to you now, if that is true 
then you have not yet entered' upon the study of aerial 
navigation. ’ * - - ■- r 

Our appliances must conform to the laws that gov¬ 
ern natural flight, hence we must resort to the horizontal 
propeller, or rather two horizontal propellers under 
separate control, and a horizontal rudder. We will then 
find ourselves in a position to carry out the laws that 
govern natural flight, or in other words practical aerial 
navigation. * 

I have resolved to not go the Lilienthal route, so I 
have been obliged, temporarily at least, to combine these 
principles of natural flight with the balloon principle; 
that is, I have adopted a small gas bag, not, however, 
for the purpose of suspending me between earth and 
sky, as the airship builders do, but for the purpose of 
relieving gravity of the greater part of my weight and 
do away with the necessity of the dangerously high rate 
of speed which would result if we followed the Lilien- 


thal regime. That is, we will suppose that myself and 
machine weigh 200 pounds. I would at first adopt a gas 
bag with a buoyancy of 180 pounds. This would re¬ 
duce my weight to 20 pounds, which, under the laws 
that govern natural flight, would represent my dynamic 
force or power of propulsion; that is, I must exert that 
amount of energy in order to rise from the ground, and 
gravity, to the extent of 20 pounds working in harmony 
with my horizontal propellers fashioned after the bird’s 
wing, would force me forward on my journey over the 
air. 

Now, if we have learned anything from Professor 
Bird, we will remember that as our speed increases the 
demand on our energies for power diminishes; that is, 
the horizontal propeller reverses the limitations of the 
screw propeller and its efficiency is increased by its speed 
instead of diminished. Being 20 pounds heavier than 
the air, we can return to earth whenever and wherever 
we choose, and can make as many ascensions as we may 
desire without shifting gas or ballast. 

When, in pursuance of these laws, as we gain ex¬ 
perience in the art of flying and become more and more 
accustomed to elevations and speed and work out the 
perfection of our device, we will soon be able to reduce 
the size of our gas bag, increase our speed just in the 
same ratio that we increase the weight we carry and so 
work step by step in perfect safety towards the ultimate 
elimination of gas entirely. 

On the other hand, were we to increase the amount 
of gas the slower would be our speed, and if we continue 
to increase it until our buoyancy represents our entire 
weight, our propellers would no longer be of any value, 
as gravity would there cease to furnish our dynamic or 
propelling force. You see, we do not want to overcome 


the law of gravity; we make it our slave as the birds 
do, and it would be impossible to get along without it. 

The value and importance of the discovery of this 
system of aerial navigation cannot be overestimated. It 
is not based upon a single theory, but every principle 
that enters into its workings is an incontrovertible law 
that no man can or wishes to deny. 

It points out the way to achieve the grandest re¬ 
sults, step by step, without the actual elements of danger 
to the operator, and cannot be otherwise than an econo¬ 
mical system. 

I am aware that there are thousands of men in the 
country today who think they are studying aerial navi¬ 
gation and are anxious to try their hand at building an 
airship. I have been approached by dozens of these men 
and without exception they are looking for someone who 
is willing to back their ideas with money. Now, I do not 
wish to question the sincerity of these gentlemen, but 
every one of them whose ideas I have investigated are 
depending on the screw propeller for their means of 
motion and some kind of an engine for their power. I 
never stop to inquire into the details of such devices, 
because there is nothing new in them. The screw pro¬ 
peller has been tried and tested in a multiplicity of forms 
and its limitations are well understood by men in the 
higher branches of mechanical science, and those who 
still cling to it in the study of aerial navigation are not 
studying aerial navigation at all, though they may think 
they are. 

I claim to be the originator of the horizontal pro¬ 
peller, and when I say that it is the only form of pro¬ 
peller that is applicable to the laws of flight my claim is 
corroborated bv every winged creature that travels upon 
the air. It is the only key that will unlock the door that 


13 1905, 


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leads to practical aerial navigation. 

I have made a thorough and exhaustive study of this 
subject, and it is with the utmost confidence and positive¬ 
ness that I assure you that the air will be navigated and 
in our own day and time and in our own city. 

I further promise you that when the problem is 
finally and completely solved upon the lines and princi¬ 
ples suggested in this work, we shall have the grandest, 
safest and easiest method of travel ever yet discovered. 

Its perfection along these lines will put the world 
upon an entirely different footing, as it will render the 
great navies of the earth useless and put a stop to mar¬ 
shaling of large bodies of men together for the purposes 
of war. 

Let us hope that it will hasten the day when nations 
will cease to wage war with nations, and mankind 
throughout the whole world will be moulded into one 
grand co-operative commonwealth. 

Let us hope that it may carry the message of liberty, 
love and enlightenment to the uttermost ends of the 
earth to the end that humanity may yet enjoy universal 
peace, speak in a universal language and co-operate with 
each other for universal happiness. 

A. L. REYOLDS. 


























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